Paul Colton

PC Year 3

When we were asked at Pearson College in the 1970s to make contributions for inclusion in our Yearbook I felt strongly drawn to this phrase: When I came to Pearson my schooling ended and my education began.

That’s how I felt then as an idealistic teenager: that’s still how I feel now.

All these years on I tell friends, colleagues and the people among whom I work that, in order fully to understand me, they need to know about my Pearson experience and years. It had an irreversible, life-changing impression on me. Today, in many situations in which I find myself in life and work, in framing ideas and fashioning a response to many situations, Pearson and all it taught me are my default setting.

The impulses of this formation stem not only from formal education and the academic programme, but also from the wider activities on the campus and in the local communities. Much of it was nurtured and nourished by people in all their diversity and humanity, their joys and struggles and the common experience we shared together. The stunning location––not least the trees––played its indelible role, too.

Above all else, for me the years at Pearson opened my eyes, my mind and my heart. For these things I will always be grateful. I brought them with me to law school, in my theological studies, in my work in Northern Ireland, in West Dublin. in all the travels I have undertaken; in the many challenges I have encountered and also in my work as bishop in a minority community in Ireland.